Man furious after council removes elephant slide from his drive

A man is furious after council ‘killjoys’ removed a novelty elephant slide from his driveway because angry neighbours complained it was a ‘monstrosity’.

Trevor Robinson was left ‘heartbroken’ when he was forced to ditch the former piece of play-equipment from the front garden of his semi-detached home in Gillingham, Kent.

Locals had moaned to Medway Council that the 20ft-long fibreglass elephant nicknamed ‘Ellie’ was ‘dangerous’.

He rescued the slide after he spotted sub-contractors preparing to remove it from a nearby leisure park and said it is loved by children and their families.

The retired dock worker told MailOnline: ‘I collect quirky items, that’s the sort of guy I am. And she was a new item. I enjoyed having it there. It looked different.

‘I was doing the community a favour. People loved it when it was there. Children and their parents would stop.

‘But some of my neighbours were not happy. I was going to build a little pond to slide into it.

‘I would do anything to get it back. I have two Jaguars in my garden. They are my pride and joy. I’d sell one to get it back.

‘Ellie is as important to me as my cars.

‘The council are killjoys. It’s a scandal.’

The 71-year-old had initially planned to create a pond in his back garden for the slide so children in the neighbourhood could use it.

But Ellie was too heavy to carry into the back garden so the retired forklift driver assembled it in his driveway instead.

He said: ‘I saw them taking it away [from the leisure park] and said, ‘no I will have it.’ They thought I was joking. Then he delivered it to my house for free.

‘People loved it. I wanted to let kids and their parents come round and use it and give the money to charity.’

However, not everyone agrees with Mr Robinson’s taste.

One neighbour told KentOnline: ‘I can’t believe for a moment he actually thought he could leave it [in the drive].

‘The council’s planning department would have had a field day. We couldn’t get permission for a six-foot shed in our front garden, never mind a 20-foot-long elephant.

‘Eventually, we did say something to the council, but we weren’t the first.

‘Yes, the children liked it and people looked at it when they went by, but they didn’t have to live with it day-in, day-out.

A Medway Council spokesperson said: ‘During our annual health and safety audit of The Strand, the slide, which is now more than 30 years old, was not deemed to be safe so we took the decision to remove it.

‘Medway Norse arranged for a sub-contractor to remove the structure.

‘Once we became aware a resident had the slide following complaints, we arranged for it to be picked up so it can be safely disposed of as it is an unsafe structure.’